


A Furry Little Problem

by owlways_and_forever



Series: The Mischief They Create [8]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Allergic reaction, Allergies, Animagus, Gen, Marauders Era (Harry Potter)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-28
Updated: 2020-08-28
Packaged: 2021-03-06 15:07:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,556
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26150845
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/owlways_and_forever/pseuds/owlways_and_forever
Summary: Becoming an animagus has some unforeseen consequences for Sirius.
Relationships: Sirius Black & James Potter, Sirius Black & Lily Evans Potter
Series: The Mischief They Create [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1888561
Comments: 3
Kudos: 28





	A Furry Little Problem

Lily sneezed.

Her eyes started to water, and she couldn't for the life of her figure out why. Two seconds earlier she had been completely fine, and then Sirius had walked in and now she felt like her skin was on fire, and she wished she could tear it off. She sneezed again, snot clogging her nostrils.

"Lily?" Marlene asked, furrowing her eyebrows in concern. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," she insisted, scratching at her neck.

"Really, because you look like you want to claw your face off…" Marlene replied, clearly skeptical.

"I don't know what's going on, I usually only get like this when there's a dog around," Lily said.

"Someone must've been down at Hagrid's playing with Fang," Marlene shrugged.

"Yeah, I guess so. Anyway, I've gotta get out of here, otherwise I'm never gonna get any studying done." Lily packed up her books and grabbed her bag as she stood.

Once she was out of the library, her symptoms subsided almost immediately. Lily couldn't fathom what the cause could be, it was just so bizarre.

o . o . o

She felt his presence before she even saw Sirius enter the room, her skin beginning to crawl and a tickle building in her nose.

"Sirius! _Achoo!_ Get away - _achoo -_ from me! Please!" Lily begged, trying to stifle her sneezes as Sirius approached the table where she was sitting.

"Merlin Evans, what's your damage?" Sirius snapped, flashing her an irritated look.

"I think I'm allergic to you," Lily said miserably, wiping tears from her eyes. " _Achoo_!"

"What?"

"I don't know," she moaned, rubbing at her eyes again. "I don't know why, but suddenly every time you get within five feet of me it's like I'm being suffocated by a pillow of dog fur! I can't take it anymore, Sirius! I just want to go one day without - _achoo!"_

Sirius looked at her with wide eyes. He hadn't known Lily was allergic to dogs. Not that there would be much changing their predicament - he hadn't known that his animagus form would turn him into a dog, and even if he had, it wouldn't have stopped him from doing it. But it did upset him that she was so miserable. For all he teased her (and she badgered him right back), Lily was his friend, and he never wanted to be the source of her discomfort.

"You can't possibly be allergic to me, Evans! It's not possible," Sirius argued, keeping a shred of hope alive that maybe she was mistaken about the cause of her troubles.

She sneezed twice in short succession in answer to his statement, and when she opened her eyes, they were red and watery. She looked almost as if she had a bad case of the flu.

"Please, Sirius," Lily begged, sniffling loudly.

"Okay, okay," he conceded, pushing back from the table and collecting his things. "Feel better, I guess."

"I will once you're about fifty metres away," Lily mumbled under her breath. She watched as he ducked out of the portrait hole, undoubtedly off to find James, and tried to breathe more steadily, letting the air pass through her slowly clearing nasal passage.

o . o . o

Sirius burst into the library, his mind whirring as he tried to figure out what to do. He couldn't very well spend the next two and a half years making Evans sneeze non-stop every time they were in the same room. James was sitting in the back of the library, as he usually did, bent over the table with his hand fisted in his hair in concentration. It was his customary pose whenever he was grappling with a particularly difficult assignment, and the sight almost made Sirius turn around. But no matter how difficult the essay was, this problem was definitely more important. He plopped down into the chair across from his best friend and dropped his bag on the table with a heavy _thunk_. James didn't look up, even when Sirius began tapping his fingertips impatiently on the tabletop. With a heavy sigh, Sirius resolved himself to break the silence.

"Hey James," he whispered. "I think I've got a problem."

"Just ask him out already," James mumbled, focused on his essay.

"What?" Sirius asked, confused.

"Nevermind," James sighed. Evidently the problem was that Sirius was still completely unaware of his own feelings, but James wasn't going to be the one to break the news to him. "What's your issue?"

"Apparently Evans is allergic to dogs," Sirius answered under his breath.

"So?" James replied, trying very hard to seem nonchalant at the mention of his crush.

" _So_ in case you haven't noticed, lately I've started turning into a big hairy dog some nights!" Sirius hissed. "Last I checked, you've been right there with me in all your cervine glory!"

"So you're saying she's allergic to you?" James clarified.

"Yes! Apparently that particular trait sticks with me even when I'm not transformed."

"Merlin," James swore, running his hands haphazardly through his hair. "Well what are you going to do?"

"I don't know, I was kind of hoping you would help me figure that out," Sirius snapped. "That's what I came here for - you know I'm not the library type."

"Right, well, maybe…" James thought carefully, trying to remember some kind of spell or charm that would help them.

"Do you think I did it wrong?" Sirius asked, chewing on his lip in a rare show of apprehension.

"Did what wrong?"

"The animagus spell. Do you think I got it wrong somehow, and that's why -"

"No," James said firmly. "You did it exactly the same as me and Peter. I'm sure it's just one of the peculiarities of the condition. You'll see, in time we'll all find that we have traits that carryover. That's probably in part what matched us to our forms in the first place."

"I didn't always make people sneeze uncontrollably!" Sirius hissed.

"Of course you didn't," James pacified. "I think allergies are usually caused by the dandruff, maybe there's a charm that can take care of that."

"What if we could cast some kind of charm so that I never lose fur or something," Sirius suggested, his expression desperate.

"You might end up a gigantic furball," James teased, trying to lighten the mood, but he only succeeded in making Sirius groan in frustration.

"This is hopeless!"

"Maybe you should ask Professor McGonagall," James suggested. "She turns into a cat, I bet she's had this problem before."

"Right, and clue her in on us all being unregistered animagi," Sirius scoffed.

"Honestly, I think she's probably already guessed it," James shrugged. "After all of our 'hypothetical' questions… she's not stupid, you know."

"Alright, fine, I'll ask her."

o . o . o

Sirius took a deep breath as he raised his fist to knock on the door of Professor McGonagall's office. He wasn't at all confident about this, but he couldn't see any other options. Sirius usually had no problem flouting the rules, and he didn't mind a detention or ten, but being an unregistered animagus was a different story altogether. And he wouldn't be the only one that got in trouble either. But he just couldn't continue to torment Evans.

"Professor McGonagall?" Sirius called out as he knocked on her door.

"Come in," she replied, and the heavy door swung open, pulled ajar by her invitation.

Sirius stepped into her office and shut the door behind her, taking a seat in the armchair in front of her desk.

"How can I help you, Mr. Black?" Professor McGonagall asked, and Sirius had to suppress a shudder at the use of his surname, as he always did.

"I have a question for you," he said.

"I presumed as much," she replied, staring intently at him. "Go on."

"It's a bit hypothetical," Sirius began. "I was thinking about animagi, and something occurred to me. What if someone were to take a form that others were allergic to? Your form is feline, and lots of people are allergic to cats. What do you do?"

"Well, typically animagi do not cause the same reaction in others," Professor McGonagall explained, adjusting her spectacles. "As they are magical beings, and not your average animal, they do not usually possess the same allergens in their physical form. However, in some situations, the transformed state of an animagus is so strong, that they take on even more of the physical properties of their form, which can include allergens. For those who experience this, there is a rather simple spell - _reprimere irritans_. It is cast upon the animagus, and is typically permanent, but if it does wear off, it can be recast with no issue. Does that answer your question?"

"Yes, Professor," Sirius replied, feeling a great deal of relief. "Mostly, at least. Is it possible for people to be allergic to animagi, even when they're human?"

"I suppose," she answered thoughtfully. "If the connection was strong enough, that it would be possible for traces of any allergens to remain. But the spell should resolve that as well."

"Thank you, Professor," Sirius said sincerely, feeling more relieved than he ever had after a conversation with one of his teachers. He excused himself from her office and made a beeline back to the library, hoping to find James there. He had gotten answers and now he had a plan.


End file.
